Gas-heating chamber for torpedo-boats



(NoModeLg V G. E. HAIGHT & W. H. WOOD.

GAS HEATING CHAMBER PORTORPEDOIBOATS.

No. 349,711. Patented Sept. 28, 1886.

I W%Wo JW% v wow- UNiTEn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. HAIGHT, OF NEW HAVEN, AND WILLIAM H. WOOD, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

GAS-HEATING CHAMBER .FOR TORPEDO-BOATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 349,711, dated September 28, 1886.

Application filed March 11, 1886. Serial No. 194,931.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE E. HAIGHT,

. of the city and county of New Haven, and

. invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas-Heating Chambers for Torpedo-Boats,

WILLIAM H. W001), of the city and county of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, have of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, whereby any one skilled in the art can make and use the same.

Our invention relates the class of gas-heating devices used in torpedo-boats for preventing the congealing of the compressed carbonicacid gas by the rapid decrease in temperature caused in the change from the liquid to the gaseous state.

Our object is to provide a device and means for the automatic mixing of the chemicals -used to heat and expand the gas; and our in 'vention consists in the heating-chamber containing one of the chemicals, as sulphuric acid, and a similar-chamber with means for holding the latter 'closed, and also for automatically opening it so that its contents-usaally lime-is dumped into the acid, and in de tails of the construction and combination of the several parts as more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a detail view showing a part of the shell of a torpedo-boat, and in longitudinal vertical section of the gas heating and expanding chamber. Fig. 2 is a view in central crosssection of the parts, showing the inner tube in dotted line in its open position.

The within-described invention is adapted I and intended for use in a torpedo-boat'ot' the kind shown and described in our pending application of Serial N 0. 181,736, and reference is made to the said application for the details of description and illustration of the boat and its operating parts as a whole.

The motive power used in our torpedo-boat is a gas stored in a liquid form under great pressure in a flask or reservoir, and from there the liquid is conducted by pipes through heating and expanding chambers to the engine that drives the propeller fast to a shaft that extends beyond the stern of the boat. The special means of conducting the liquid from the reservoir to the expanding-chamber so as (No model.)

to prevent freezing, is substantially the same as that shown and described in United States Letters Patent to Height, dated May 9, 1882,

N 0. 257,694. The liquid is conveyed from the flask or reservoir by suitable pipes to the coil in the heating and expanding chamber where it is expanded into gaseous form, and after being sufiiciently expanded is led into the supply-pipes of the engine.

The letter A denotes a portion of the shell of a torpedo-boat that is made of suitable material, as copper, the whole boat being circular in crossseetion, and tapering to a sharp point at the bow and stern. In one of .the compartments into which the interior 'of a boat is divided by suitable bulk-heads is located the heating-chamber B, which is a closed cylinder of any suitable material, as copper, made in two or more parts bolted or otherwise fastened together, with openings through the end walls for the passage of the several pipes of the gas-circulating system. The pipe D is formed into a coil, D, within the chamber B in any desired and convenient position, and is more or less immersed in the liquid, sulphnric acid and water, that formsp'art of the gas-heating mixture. To the wall of the chamber, and preferably at the top, is attached the lime-tube 0, formed in two or more segments hinged together, so that when this chamber, is opened its contents will be dropped into the solution in the heating-chamber. In the form shown the parts of the tube are held closed by the bolt e that has several arms, 6, which pass through holes in two or more lugs that are fast to each of the body parts of the tube, and the latter is sprung open when the bolt is withdrawn by the recoil of the flat springs e, that are located within the tube and compressed by the closing of the parts of the latter, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This tube is filled with lime broken into pieces of convenient size to insure its ready mixing with the acid solution, and the tube is opened to dump the lime by the pressure of the gas from the tube H upon the piston F, that ismovable in the bolt-drawing cylinder F, fast to the end wall of the chamber B, the piston being' fast to the outer end of the bolt e; The piston and rod are suitably packed, to prevent leakage of the gas. The lime-tube is provided body, 9 with a branch, by means of which it is fastened to the pipe f, and the valve is an ordinary puppet-valve, with a downturned stemyf that supports a spring, f, seated against the bottom of the valve-body, and a collar or nut on the extreme end of the stem, thus tending to keep the valve closed. The lower part ofthe valve,in which the stem is located, is inclosedin the hood g, that may be attached to the valve-body as by means of a thread. This hood is filled with oil to a height above the upper end of the spring, and the function of this oil-packing, that does away with" the need of any other packing, is that the acid fluids that are drawn out through the valve have no chance to leak out from the valvebody or to at all injure the spring. The valve also operates more easily in closing, owing to the entire absence of friction, due to the peculiar nature of the packing.

lVhen the within-described device is combined with the gas-circulating system and the valve-operating device of the torpedo-boat for useiu which it is especially designed, by the opening of a valve the gas is allowed to flow v into the tube H and the piston F is forced out-- ward so as to unlock the lime-tube and cause the contents to be dumped into the acid solution and by their 'union produce the heat necessary to prevent the freezing of the gas that flows through the coil D, formed in the pipe D, within the chamber, and the gas is then heated and expanded to the degree requisite for use in the engine. One or more such chambers may obviously be used in any given boat for the purpose herein specified.

We claim as our invention- 1. In combination with the reservoir, the pipe system and the gas heating and expanding chambers, the lime-tube secured within the chamber, the bolt locking the tube and bearing the piston in the cylinder connected with the gas'supply system, whereby by the movement of said piston-rod the tube is automatical l yopened, all substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the gas heating and expanding chamber, of a chamber secured within the gas-heating chamber, and a device operated by the motive power of the engine for opening thesaid inner chamber, all substantially as described,and for the purpose set forth.

3. In combination with a gas heating and expanding chamber containing chemicals and an inner partible vessel secured in said chamher, and also containing chemicals, the bolt or catch operated by the pressure of the gas that forms the motive power to propel a torpedoboat, all substantially as described.

4. The combination, with a gas heating and expanding chamber, of a partible chamber secured within the gas heating and expanding chamber,all substantially as described,and for the purpose specified.

5. In combination with the outlet-pipe f from the gas -heating chamber 13, a safetyvalve, f, having its valve-spring submerged in oil held in an extension of the valve-body, all substantially as described.

GEORGE E. HAIGHT. I \VILLIAM H. WOOD.

Witnesses:

CHAS. L. BURDETT, H. R. WILLIAMs. 

